Well, this is sort of intended as a fun rather than a contentious balance balance discussion but it'll be interesting to see how widely spread across the classes certain items are. So, basically, for whatever class - in your view - what's the strongest locker prep and what's your favourite (throw in gods as well if you like)?

So, to start off

Still got a soft spot for the GG Paladin with Fire Heart (aka the healthmonster) just because it was nice finding something for dwarves to do. I think that's still the strongest Paladin build on two of the vicious dungeons at the moment.

Rogues... the triswording GG rogue remains the monster of monsters... I tend to enjoy Jehora and TT rogues a bit more.

Assassins... one suspects that the old high-rolling crystal-baller might be the strongest. Not sure if the latest nerf might tip the balance back towards Mystera + Mage Plate. Anyway, my popcorn-cruncher of choice at the moment is Whurgarbl. Synergy with fireballing, synergy with new poison.

Gorgon... dragon shield binlor is THE (maybe even the only - Mystera's not bad but not great either) vicious gorgon build until someone can prove me wrong on that. She's a bit of a muddle with god synergies otherwise. I enjoy running around with Taurog. Going to need to try a Whurgarbl/Mystera gorgon.

Still got a soft spot for the GG Paladin with Fire Heart (aka the healthmonster) just because it was nice finding something for dwarves to do. I think that's still the strongest Paladin build on two of the vicious dungeons at the moment.

I can't imagine playing dwarf Paladin as a serious vicious choice. The class benefits enormously from attack damage, and with GG already increasing your health there's diminishing returns from the dwarf. The big thing is that HALPMEH is totally unaffected by your max health, whereas a boost to attack damage is always useful regardless of what your melee strategy may be. Trilling, Human, and Orc are my go-to guys for Paladins regardless of what my prep is.

Rogues... the triswording GG rogue remains the monster of monsters... I tend to enjoy Jehora and TT rogues a bit more.

All good choices. Alchemist's Scroll and Namtar's Ward also works nicely.

Dragon Soul on Bloodmages if it's in the backpack

Basically turns him into a Rogue for spellcasting. Still, the random element makes it difficult to leverage.

I've been enjoying Sorcerer/Bloodmage with fireball magnet preparation (and nothing else) recently. Yeah, it's not technically purist, but it's a fun way to run the game.

Still got a soft spot for the GG Paladin with Fire Heart (aka the healthmonster) just because it was nice finding something for dwarves to do. I think that's still the strongest Paladin build on two of the vicious dungeons at the moment.

I can't imagine playing dwarf Paladin as a serious vicious choice. The class benefits enormously from attack damage, and with GG already increasing your health there's diminishing returns from the dwarf. The big thing is that HALPMEH is totally unaffected by your max health, whereas a boost to attack damage is always useful regardless of what your melee strategy may be. Trilling, Human, and Orc are my go-to guys for Paladins regardless of what my prep is.

Rogues... the triswording GG rogue remains the monster of monsters... I tend to enjoy Jehora and TT rogues a bit more.

All good choices. Alchemist's Scroll and Namtar's Ward also works nicely.

Dragon Soul on Bloodmages if it's in the backpack

Basically turns him into a Rogue for spellcasting. Still, the random element makes it difficult to leverage.

I've been enjoying Sorcerer/Bloodmage with fireball magnet preparation (and nothing else) recently. Yeah, it's not technically purist, but it's a fun way to run the game.

Got to disagree, the Dwarf GG Paladin is THE paladin for Dragon Isles, and does pretty well on Naga City too. You get %-based healing from Protection, Levelling, Fire Heart and health potions, so you get a lot more leverage from that than from just having extra attack. You get to basically ignore poison, mana burn and curse with it, which is magnificent on DI, and the power levelling afforded by the reusable Fire Heart is nice. GG+attack booster will give you pretty decent damage output. Anyway, I've smoked Dragon Isles and Naga City with it, both parched (which leaves you with an extra 5x40% or whatever potions are at the moment of Dwarf-with-absolution-health).

If anyone cared to check my volumionus "cheeze pantry" post in the playthrough notes, you might notice that I resorted to simply making anything an "absolve everything" healthmonster whenever the PQI brought up Warmonger, Parched or Miser with a screwy combo (and many other times). Sometimes without enlightment, often with other badges.

Doing it with a paladin and a few preps was probably good enough to beat even vicious.

But absolution's been nerfed nicely, so I don't know how broken this is ATM. It's probably still really strong.

The human won't be quite as good at HP-spiking as the dwarf. He'll be pretty close, though, since he'll on average do about 30% more damage than the attack-booster-happy dwarf per hit while the dwarf can expect around 40% more HP over the absolution-happy human (exact amounts will vary based on shop pool). Thresholds will cause this to vary, but you're not that far ahead as the dwarf, since even though the human gets fewer attacks in, each attack is hitting that much harder.

For everything else, regen-fighting, HALPMEH use, first-strike finishers, and popcorn cleanup, the human gets better value. If you've already got GG loading you out with HP, I really find the dwarf redundant and I'd rather be working to improve my attack damage.

Now, if you use Dracul (scummed, not prepped) instead of GG, then I'd say the dwarf has merits. You won't have a health-boosting boon and you'll have to mitigate the losses from blood tithe.

But absolution's been nerfed nicely, so I don't know how broken this is ATM. It's probably still really strong.

Oh, I somehow skimmed over that when I read the patchlog.

Hmmmm... sadly probably a cost that scumming 1st-level joinees can easily afford, while late-arrivals won't consider more than a handful of hits.

Human's still pretty decent at it - tend to find with the 100% HP restores you get from Fire Heart going dwarf will give you 3 extra attacks rather than 2/use, and hitting higher level enemies makes a difference. If I wasn't taking in Fire Heart I'd go human, I think (Halpme's not really an HP-spiker thing but it's pretty useful if your %-based heals put you on the margin of taking an extra hit).